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Duff Does the Big Screen!
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Beautiful B&W cinematography. Crisp. Clean. Shiny. Sparkly. Some really impressive performances both by the big guns (Straithairn, etc.) but also by the bit players (Langella, Daniels, Tate Donovan!). Understated yet intense at the same time. Nice side story with Patricia Clarkson and Robert Downey Jr. Back when the media actually took positions and fought for the downtrodden... What a joke to think people call today's media "liberal." Ha.
Capote.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is so not himself in this movie. Incredible job, really brings Truman Capote to life. Catherine Keener was also good. And the bit players (Bruce Greenwood). Definitely puts "In Cold Blood" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" on the read/re-read list. Spooky. Nerve-wracking.
Conclusion: Loved them both. Two thumbs up. Duff says "yea." But damn, did those people in the 50s/60s fucking smoke and drink ALL the time. Seeing these back to back really makes it jump out at you. In the office, smoking. In people's homes, smoking. Constant drinking. And not "oh let me have one tiny drink" kind of drinking. It's wild. To me.
To my mom: "Oh yeah, that's how it was. Everyone we went to college with smoked. Everyone. Some women in our congregation who were nurses in the 50s remember getting handed free packs of cigarettes with their lunches in the hospital cafeteria!"
That's just crazy talk!
Posted by Duff at November 3, 2005 10:26 AM Posted to flicks.
Tate Donovan? Well, if I didn't already want to see it I would now.
But Capote I could have done without. I felt like it was established pretty early that the guy was ego-driven and self-involved, and then... nothing. No point to his egoism or manipulation. Hoffman was indeed very good, and Keener excellent (more Harper Lee in that movie would have been great -- a good contrast to Capote), but I felt like I learned nothing from Capote and he didn't learn much either.
Though I do want to read In Cold Blood now and reread TKAM.
Posted by: J Strizzy at November 3, 2005 03:25 PM
Good Night & Good Luck is finally playing here. We can't wait to see it!
Posted by: monica at November 4, 2005 09:57 AM
I think people drink loads now! Although not before driving, which they def did ages ago. But the smoking is mad....
Posted by: jen at November 4, 2005 12:58 PM
FREE smokes? I'm reeling. Free?? Although I don't smoke anymore, I sure like to think about that... (I need to stop listening to forties jazz in the afternoons....)
Posted by: Rachael at November 4, 2005 05:50 PM
Damn, I knew I was missing out by not being a semi-adult in that era. Let's bring it back, people! Drinking and smoking all day long. Woohoo.
Posted by: GZ at November 4, 2005 07:17 PM
Did you ever go and see Elisabethtown?
Posted by: Linda at November 5, 2005 11:15 AM
Neither of those movies is playing here yet -- I've been watching for them. We went to see Jarhead last night... slightly different...
Posted by: alison at November 5, 2005 12:19 PM
Hey, that's NOTHING. DOCTORS, when EXAMINING PATIENTS, would be SMOKING. I'm not kidding. And no, I'm not old enough to remember that. (heh)
Posted by: Norma at November 5, 2005 09:44 PM
My mom said the exact same thing about the smoking in Good Night and Good Luck--someone she was with said she felt like she could smell it from the movie screen.
Posted by: Em at November 8, 2005 02:38 PM